Marc Vidal ran 93 balls from a negative one score to easily win the 3rd quarter 2009 North Jersey 14.1 Straight Pool Pro/Am Quarterly tournament held at Comet Billiards, Parsippany, NJ during the weekend of September 26th and 27th. Not for a brief laps in concentration, Marc would have easily hit the “century” mark and quite possible a run out. Marc defeated Bill Horne by a score of 121 to 11. At the outset of the match both players were evenly handicapped at skill level 3 with each needing 110 points for a victory. The handicap system of this tournament allows each player of this skill level to run 75 balls without obtaining penalty points. Because Marc had exceeded his handicap ball run limit, he was assessed with an additional 11 points that was added to his match points (10% of starting match points) and therefore needed 121 points for a win. Also, with that run of 93 balls Marc was promoted to skill level 2, which will take effect in the very next tournament Marc plays in. Marc also had another notable ball run during this tournament of 52 balls. This final match, as well as the quarter and semi final matches, were streamed live online from the Accu-stats OnLocation Arena at Comet Billiards, and can still be viewed for free on the Accu-stat’s web site “OnLocation” on ustream archives. Bill Horne, taking second place, played very well throughout the tournament, despite his crushing defeat from Marc Vidal. Bill had a 46 ball run in his semi final victory against Joey Kong and other notable ball runs in earlier matches of 52 and 38. Joey Kong came in third place and held the tournament high run of 71 balls since his first round victory over Pat Fleming, only to lose the high run bonus money to Marc Vidal’s 93 ball run in the very last match of the tournament. Tournament High Run paid a bonus of $150. Joey also had a 39 ball run in that first round match against Pat Fleming as well as a hand full of other notable ball runs during the Tournament, including 41, 33, and 30 ball runs. BCA Hall of Famer, Pat Fleming, finished with a very respectable fourth place despite having by far the most ball running consistency in the tournament then any of the other player, having double and triple runs over 20 balls in every match he played except his first match against Joey Kong for a total of 13 runs in six matches (mostly in the 30s and 40s). Pat’s high run was a 52 (and out) against skill level 5 player Blain Howard who by the way had a 28 ball run in that match against Pat. Because of Blain’s 28 ball run, which exceeded his ball run limit of 25 was assessed an additional 7 points and had to then reach 77 points before Pat scored his 130 points. Pat won that match 130 to 60. Blain was also promoted to skill level 4 for his 28 ball run effort. Other notable matches to speak of was a match between skill level 6 player Ted Williams going to 50 points and Joey Kong needing 130. Joey had been promoted to Skill Level 2 at the outset of the Tournament, largely because of his two, 1st place finishes and one, 2nd place finish in prior North Jersey 14.1 Pro-Am events. His match with Ted took almost 2 ½ hours to conclude with Joey Kong squeaking out a victory by the Score of 130 to 48. In order to keep control of the table, Joey had been forced to back scratch in almost every rack played and had given up 18 points in total scratches to Ted’s 11 scratches. Ted had a 16 ball run in this match, which exceed his ball run limit of 14 and was therefore assessed an additional 5 points raising his total match points to 55. Ted was promoted to a skill level 5 for future tournaments. Other promotions during the tournament was by Paul Wortman, an other player starting out as skill level 6, who had a 15 ball run in his victory against Haskell Wallace by the score of 55 to 23. Paul will now also be playing future matches as a skill level 5 player. Jason Michas was also promoted, to a skill level 3 on the outset of the tournament due to his prior tournament winnings. Basically there are six skill levels, from 6 to 1. Six is the lowest skill level with a match point of 50. There are 20-point incremental increases from one level to the next with the highest skill level having a match point of 150. Each skill level is also assigned a ball run limit (except level 1) that may be exceed at the option of the player, who would then be assessed penalty points (points added to his starting match points). That player is then promoted on his very next match to the next higher skill level or to whichever skill level his ball run corresponds with. Number of Entrants: 14 Payouts: First Place - $625.00 – Marc Vidal
Second Place - $325.00 – Bill Horne
Third Place - $150.00 – Joey Kong
High Run - $150.00 – Marc Vidal (93 balls) by: Scott Abramowitz – SDA Promotions 9/29/09
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